Catawba Tops SAC Baseball Championship Field

ROCK HILL, S.C. - The Catawba College Indians clinched the regular season SAC title Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep over Mars Hill College and Wingate University splitting a doubleheader at Tusculum College. The Bulldogs entered the weekend with a one-game lead in the standings, but Catawba took three games from Mars Hill and Tusculum won two out of three against Wingate. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Pioneers capped a seventh-inning rally with a walk-off three-run homer for a 4-3 victory, which clinched the outright title for Catawba Indians. Catawba went 21-6 in SAC play, with Wingate finishing at 20-7 in the conference.

Catawba will open the SAC Tournament against sixth-seeded Carson-Newman University Thursday at noon. The Eagles finished the SAC season with a 13-14 record.

Second-seeded Wingate will take on the number five seed Lincoln Memorial in the second game on Thursday at 3:45 p.m. LMU finished tied with Carson-Newman at 13-14 in league play, but earned the five seed with a 2-1 series win over the Eagles.

The third-seeded Tusculum Pioneers will face the number four seed, Newberry College, in the final game on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Tusculum finished 16-11 in SAC play, while the Wolves went 13-12 in the conference.

The tournament continues with the same game times on Friday and Saturday. Sunday will feature either one or two games, depending on the game one result, which will take place at 1 p.m. All games of the 2013 Food Lion SAC baseball tournament will take place at McNair Field in Forest City, N.C.

Complete championship including ticket prices and schedule of games is available online at SAC Baseball Championship Central . Links to follow the action of all the games will be made available on the page.

2013 Food Lion SAC Baseball Championship Schedule (All games played at McNair Field in Forest City, N.C.)

Thursday, April 18, 2013
Game 1 – #1 Catawba vs. #6 Carson-Newman, Noon
Game 2 – #2 Wingate vs. #5 Lincoln Memorial, 3:45 p.m.
Game 3 – #3 Tusculum vs. #4 Newberry, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, April 19, 2013
Game 4 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser, Noon
Game 5 – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 3 Loser, 3:45 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 20, 2013
Game 7 – Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner, Noon
Game 8 – Game 6 Loser vs. Game 4 Winner, 3:45 p.m.
Game 9 – Game 7 Loser vs. Game 8 Winner, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 21, 2013
Game 10 – Championship Game, 1 p.m.
Game 11 – If Necessary, 4 p.m.